This invention relates to equipment enclosing pedestal and particularly relates to outdoor pedestal suitable for housing cable television signal distribution equipment.
In this distribution of cable television signals to subscribers, underground cable systems are laid throughout a wide area and signal re-distribution equipment is required to be located at various outdoor locations to supply the signals to the subscribers. Such re-distribution equipment must be housed in pedestals installed on the ground to prevent the equipment from exposing to weathering and physical abuse. Heretofore, generally rectangular shaped outdoor equipment pedestals have been employed for installing the signal distribution equipment. However, such electrical equipment pedestals are primarily designed for housing light-weight outdoor electrical equipment, and are thus unsuitable for housing the cable television equipment as such equipment is becoming increasingly larger in size and heavier in weight. In order to support the weight of the cable television equipment, a steel stake anchor is often driven into the ground to secure the pedestal upright on the ground. The pedestal is, in turn, bolted on the stake anchor. After a relatively short time, the bolts to the anchor and/or the anchor itself become worn and loosen, particularly, in cold climate installation areas, in which frosting and defrosting of the ground are common causing the anchor as well as the pedestal to move relative to the ground. Eventually, the pedestal becomes leaning on its base thus creating an unsightly object on the subscriber's lawns, and in worse cases the pedestal tips over to expose the installation. To avoid such problem, installers have been pouring a cement base around the pedestal to hold it securely; but such additional operation increases the expense in labour and material as well as the time required in the installation. Such method of installation still requires the use of an anchor stake. Another potential problem in the use of an anchor stake is the possibility of unknowing damages to other outdoor underground installations.
Due to the generally rectangular shape of the common pedestals, shipping and storing them requires a considerable amount of expense since they can not be stacked together and thus would take up a large amount of space.
Moreover, due to the restricted space provided in the pedestal, when it is necessary to change to a larger line extender in the re-distribution equipment, the energized line extender must be dismantled. This requirement adds to extra labour costs and must importantly causes disruption in service to the subscribers.